Stop Listening and Start Talking

 

The tapes we play in our heads are often filled with negative thoughts and feelings.  We feel bad about a situation or relationship, and that fuels lots of unhelpful thoughts. 

“I’m sad.”

“Why?”
“Because this circumstance isn’t what I want and it’s probably just going to get worse.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s just how I feel.”

Psalm 42:5 - Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

 

Things to think about:

·       Our passage here highlights the importance of self-talk.  We all do it all of the time.  The problem is we tend to listen more than we talk.

o   Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a pastor from the first half of the 20^th century, gave a sermon on Christian depression and his main takeaway was we need to tell ourselves what to feel based on truth, not based on fear. (shout out to Tim Keller for citing him and this sermon)

·       We see the psalmist acknowledging his feelings (why are you so downcast my soul? Why so disturbed within me?)

o   We should never feel guilty about feeling sad or unhappy.  God gave us our emotions and we are made in His image

o   I’ll admit I’m not the touchiest-feeliest person you know. 

o   One of the benefits of being quiet is to “feel the feels” as my kids say.  Staying busy can simply be a coping mechanism for not allowing yourself to be in touch with your feelings.

§  The irony is it is an exhausting tightrope to try and stay on and a leading cause of burnout and other unhealthy consequences (anger, self-medication, bad habits, etc.)

§  Also, we have an adversary, the father of lies, who is trying to keep us beat down and losing our faith in God.

·       While it is healthy to understand why we might be sad or unhappy, it’s not OK to stay stuck in that rut and not make progress.

·       The antidote is how we talk to ourselves and the key ingredient to that is Truth (yes, with a capital T)

o   1 Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

o   We see the psalmist speak truth to himself – “Put your hope in God”

§  We need to see past the disaster and on to the Master

·       God is capable, caring, present, gracious, and omniscient

·       The psalmist ends with a statement of faith – “I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God”

o   More than even the psalmist, we already know how the story ends – God wins!

·       When you have those tapes playing in your head on an endless loop, stop listening and start talking!